Ask American Profile 6/14/2009

Jada Pinkett Smith, Ted Daffan, Melissa Joan Hart, Merry Andrew, Richard Thomas

Q I really enjoy Jada Pinkett Smith on Hawthorne, her new TV series on TNT. Why did she decide to do TV when she has a film career?
—Doritt London, Santa Fe Springs, Calif.

Pinkett's interest in this series was captured by the fact that the character is a nurse and that the show portrays the struggles of everyday people. "My mother was an RN and a single mother," says the Baltimore native, 37. "Plus, this show is an homage to all the unsung heroes in the hospital, all the everyday men and women who do extraordinary things. In [these hard economic] times, I think people are going to need to access their own superheroes within. I wanted to participate in a show that displayed that."
 

Q Can you identify a Danny Kaye film from the 1950s in which he and his lady friend are riding bicycles down a country lane and singing the song "Everything Is Tickety-Boo"?
—Beverly Klingshirn-Kuznicki, Rogers City, Mich.
Kaye sings that tune in the 1958 romantic comedy Merry Andrew. Italian-born Pier Angeli plays his circus-acrobat girlfriend.

Q In the '40s, I used to hear a song on the radio called "Born to Lose." Who sang it?
—Elidia Luera, Selma, Calif.

"Born to Lose" was written and originally recorded by Texas bandleader Ted Daffan in 1942. His record was a hit, but the song became a crossover smash when Ray Charles released his own version of the luckless-in-love lament 20 years later.


Q What is the latest on Melissa Joan Hart of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch fame? Is she married? Any children?
—J. Vega, Lake City, Fla.

Hart and her husband, musician Mark Wilkerson (who rocks with the band Course of Nature), have two sons, Mason, 3, and Brady, 1, and they are preparing to move from the West Coast to Connecticut. "We really want weather, and we want to get away from the traffic," says Hart, 33. She and Joey Lawrence recently starred in an ABC Family movie she produced called My Fake Fiance, and her production company, Hartbreak Films, shot its first feature film, Nine Dead, last summer. Hart also is opening her dream project, SweetHarts, in Sherman Oaks, Calif., that will feature frozen yogurt, candies and baked goods, a party room for birthdays, and a patio and fireplace. "I love to be busy. I thrive on it," she says.


Q The voice on the Mercedes-Benz commercials sounds a lot like a refined John Boy Walton. Is it Richard Thomas?
—Bill Althouse, Allentown, Pa.

Good catch. Yes, Thomas, 57, is the voice of Mercedes-Benz, but it is not the only commercial work the former Waltons star has done. Years ago, he was featured in a Minute Maid commercial with his real-life triplets. Commercial work aside, Thomas continues to act elsewhere. Most recently, he was in the touring company of 12 Angry Men. He's also starred in two movies for the Hallmark Channel, Annie's Point and Wild Hearts, and in the "Autopsy Room Four" episode of TNT's Nightmares and Dreamscapes, based on stories by Stephen King.

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